A trial in absentia in the case of Yury Belavusau is due to begin on 13 November at the Maskousky District Court in Minsk.
He is charged with participating in an armed formation or armed conflict in a foreign state (Part 1, Article 361-3 of the Criminal Code).
Yury Belavusau served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine under a contract from August 2022. In October 2022, he was detained in Ukraine on charges of kidnapping, torture and making death threats. In June 2023, a court in Kyiv found him guilty of torture and handed him a five-year suspended sentence with a three-year probation period. The remaining charges were dropped, Radio Svaboda reported.